Memory in a storage system (e.g., a solid state drive (SSD)) can experience thermal instability in a variety of situations. For example, high ambient temperature, data traffic, and workload, as well as the enclosure build of the storage system, can have a detrimental impact on the storage system's hardware. Components in the storage system, such as the memory array, the controller, or application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), can malfunction under sustained thermal stress, which can lead to data integrity and system reliability failures, as well as a high-defective-parts-per-million (DPPM) number. Some storage systems use thermal throttling in an attempt to handle the overheating problem. With thermal throttling, when the temperature of the storage system is above a certain threshold, the storage system can reduce the number of memory operations performed over a given time by, for example, slowing down the system clock or limiting the power or memory allocated to upcoming operations.